April 2013

David Battle, whose design concept was used for the 1972 Peace Corps Stamp, visited the Postal Museum on April 12. Jim O’Donnell and I interviewed
Mr. Battle in 2010 for an article on the Peace Corps stamp and were
delighted when he contacted us that he was planning a visit to
Washington, DC. While at the museum, Mr. Battle spoke fondly of his
visit to Washington in December of 1971 when and his family were invited
to attend the ceremony announcing the Peace Corps stamp.

Peace Corps stamp issued February 11, 1972

David Battle also designed the cachet for the 1971 first day cover that he is holding.

The National Postal Museum has the original Peace Corps stamp art on loan from the U.S. Postal Service’s, Postmaster General Collection. Annette Shumway, museum technician PMG Collection, brought out the art for him to examine in person. He showed us how graphic artist Bradbury Thompson added an extra dove in the adaptation for the final design as the design of the Peace Corps stamp was vertical and his original design was square.

David Battle examining the 1972 Peace Corps stamp art with Annette Shumway overseeing on the right.

On April 18, 1891, near Kipton station, 40 miles west of Cleveland, Ohio, the fast mail train #14 collided with the Toledo Express. The fast mail was running at full speed, and the Toledo express was almost at a spot where it would traditionally pull over on a siding to let the fast mail pass. The massive collision killed nine men, six of them postal clerks working on the fast mail train.

A line of freight cars and the station itself may have impaired the vision of the engineer of the fast mail train. He apparently applied his breaks as soon as he saw the Toledo express on the road, but it was too little, too late. According to one newspaper report, “The engine of the Toledo express was knocked squarely across the track, and that of the fast mail reared in the air, resting on the top of the other. The fast mail consisted of three mail cars and two parlor cars, and the Toledo express of five coaches and two baggage cars. The first and second mail cars were telescoped and smashed to kindling wood, and the third crashed into the first two and rolled over on the station platform, breaking the windows of the building.” (1)

The Railway Mail Service clerks killed in the wreck were all from Ohio. They were Frank Nugent of Toledo, J.L. Clement of Cleveland, James McKinley of Conneaut, and Charles Hammil, John J. Bowerfield, and Charles L. McDowell, all of Elyria. This horrific wreck, which made headlines across the country, brought the dangers of serving as a railway mail clerk home to the nation. In the weeks following the wreck, newspapers and magazines produced a number of stories highlighting the lives and work of railway mail clerks. The Post Office Department emphasized the wreck in their continuing calls for railway companies to produce steel mail cars instead of wooden ones which provided little protection for clerks in collisions.

Investigators determined that the Toledo express crew was at fault. Their train was late and should not have started out for Kipton, knowing that the fast mail was approaching on the same line. The investigation centered on the engineer’s watches, one of which was possibly four minutes slow. A mere four minutes was the difference between life and death on the line.

The General Superintendent of the line in question, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, appointed Cleveland, Ohio jeweler Webster Ball to investigate time keeping issues on the line. Ball’s investigation resulted in the establishment of watch performance and inspection standards in 1893.

At Kipton, wooden mail cars offered little protection for the clerks working inside.

Remnants of train cars at Kipton following the collision.

An historical marker at Kipton tells the story of the tragic wreck of 1891.

This year’s anniversary of Titanic’s sinking is a pretty low-key affair. Last year was the centenary, and there were hundreds of commemorations all over the world that garnered a lot of media attention. Everyone is interested in a hundredth anniversary, but a hundred-and-first somehow does not seem as important.

A crowd will gather at the Washington, D.C. Titanic memorial, as they do every year, but it will be a fraction of the three to four hundred who showed up last year at midnight.

If you don’t want to venture to the Southeast waterfront, you can instead come to the National Postal Museum and see original sketches of the memorial by its sculptor, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, on loan to us from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

Even if you have viewed Fire & Ice before, a number of new pieces were installed in January that make it worth a second look. The National Archives in New York has loaned us a manual of ship’s regulations that once belonged to Titanic survivor and White Star Line managing director J. Bruce Ismay. Published in 1907, the book was standard issue on all ships belonging to the International Mercantile Marine Co., including Titanic. We have opened it to the page dealing with “Custody of the Mails.”

Loan from National Archives and Records Administration (New York)

One of the most famous radio transmissions of all time is memorialized on this Marconi company form from Olympic’s radio room. At 1:13 a.m., one hour and forty minutes after striking an iceberg, Titanic tells Olympic, “We are putting the passengers off in small boats.” This was one of the last intelligible messages sent by Titanic. “N.Y.T.” stands for “New York Time,” which Second Officer Charles Lightoller reckoned was 1 hour and 33 minutes behind Titanic’s time.

On loan from Dr. Edward and Joanne Dauer.

Chicago physician Frank Blackmarr, a passenger aboard Carpathia when that ship received Titanic’s distress signals, assisted the ship’s surgeon treating survivors. He collected numerous relics of the disaster, including the autographs and addresses of Titanic’s four surviving officers. The autographs, from top to bottom, are: Fourth Officer James Graves Boxhall; Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller; and Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe. Third Officer Herbert John Pitman signed on a separate sheet (not shown).

Loan from Brian, Maria, and Alexander Green

So, even though the “big anniversary” is behind us, a visit to Fire & Ice at the National Postal Museum is a new opportunity to learn about the disaster and reflect on the enormity of Titanic’s loss.

When the Post Office Department began delivering mail to rural Americans as an experiment in 1896, the service was limited to selected routes in a handful of states. For the service to really prove useful, the Department wanted to organize it on a county-wide level.

On April 3, 1899, a specially designed vehicle that allowed two clerks to receive, postmark, sort and deliver mail set out from Westminster, Maryland. A third employee drove the wagon. The wagon was the first in the area, and was part of a plan to cover all of Carroll County, Maryland by Rural Free Delivery service.

Carroll County was selected in part because it was the home of Edwin W. Shriver whose designs for were used as a base for the county-wide service. Shriver and his assistant, Horace G. Reese, set out on the morning of April 3, 1900 from the Westminster post office at 6:40 a.m. with the mail. The wagon was driven by Harry H. Harbough. The trio was followed by photographer Joseph H. Kritchen and postal officials in a carriage. Shriver’s delivery wagon traveled from Westminster to Warfieldsburg, Baile, Dennings, Crawford’s store, Taylorsville, Winfield, Gist, Klee’s Mill, Bird Hill, Smallwood, Fenby, and returned to Westminster, a twenty-mile round trip reaching 200 rural families. Patrons showed their enthusiasm for the service by gathering in crowds at spots along the route, offering standing ovations to the service at Crawford’s store and Winfield.

Westminster postmaster Milton Schaeffer gave the clerks 238 letters, six postcards, 261 newspapers and circulars, and five packages for the day’s run. While making their rounds, the clerks received three letters for delivery along their route and 36 letters, four postcards, two registry receipts, one money order, and two registered letters from patrons for processing at the local post office. The clerks stopped for a meal from 11am – noon at the Gist post office and still managed to return to Westminster’s post office by 3:30 p.m., two hours ahead of their scheduled time.

A family greets the new rural postal wagon on its journey in Carroll County, Maryland.